's career was trending sharply downward. The singer's self-titled debut went double platinum. went single platinum. 2009's fell well short of gold-sales status, though it was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Contemporary R&B Album: far and away the worst disc to receive the honor. Rather than vanish and position himself for a spectacle-like comeback, wisely continued to release new music through 2010. The offhandedly belligerent hit that summer and topped the R&B/Hip-Hop chart, while also appeared on numerous singles headlined by others, including 's Top Ten By the time was released in March 2011, the album's variety of styles was already known. A total of five songs, including the slinking pop-R&B of had hit various singles charts. The bleepy rap track where displays some competence as an MC but is devoured by and ' rapid-fire verses, was one of them. The celebratory and the anthemic a pair of club singles, nodded to Eurodance. And then there was the smoothly percussive a slow jam with chivalrous sweet nothings like "I'm-a leave it in when we do it" and "Don't you be on that bullshit." Despite the success of some of these pre-album singles, they don't represent the best of On the earnest ballad the / -sampling and the remorseful (written and produced by , one to watch), plays to his strength as a boyish, romantic pop-R&B singer, while shows that he can handle harder grooves that are more R&B than pop. This all makes the equal of , if not slightly better, and it hints that 's best is yet to come. ~ Andy Kellman